There are more than a few benefits to listening to music on vinyl, and I’m not even counting the warm feeling anyone over 40 gets from dropping a needle into a crackling groove.
Vinyl records let you hear more of the highest frequencies, whereas digital media give you the greatest dynamic range. That means you hear more of the lush details, more air, more space between the instruments when you listen to vinyl than you do from digital files, which in turn give you more boom-boom, basically. It’s a trade-off. Nothing in this world is perfect.
Except, you know what is perfect? The feeling you get from finding a dusty record by a singer you’d never heard of. That you picked out purely based on the cool cover art—and you nailed it! Carrying it home and adding it to your small, but growing collection of albums that should’ve been famous.
That is doubly true when you’re living in a foreign country. Sure, you could find some New York blog about Anatolian rock, see what they recommend and search for a track or two online. Or you could buy a piece of cultural history in any one of Izmir’s independent record stores.
Prices vary greatly, but most new or like-new records that aren’t collectibles will cost around 80-100 TL. Some stores have bargain bins, which I think is where some of the best fun is to be had, even if the results can be pretty scratchy.
The largest selection: Ege Kitap ve Plak Evi
This store in the heart of Alsancak has by far the largest, most diverse vinyl album selection in Izmir. There aren’t a ton of singles but the thousands of albums are well sorted by genre. Roughly a quarter of the inventory seems to be Turkish music, the rest is international, including afro-pop, post-rock, classical, soundtracks, and many, many other categories. They have a lot more in stock than what’s in the store. Just ask.
Address: Mahmut Esat Bozkurt Cad. No 9/A, Alsancak
Phone: 0232 465 31 51
The new kid on the block: Vinylium Zone
This store opened early last year on the same street as Ege and also has a very wide selection, with a slightly different focus. The store is split in half between Turkish and International music. The Turkish inventory includes a lot of stuff from the 1970s and 80s.
Vinylium has one bargain bin (15 TL) with a mix of Turkish and International records. It also has tapes, which is cool.
Address: Mahmut Esat Bozkurt Cad. No 25/A, Alsancak
Phone: 0232 421 22 21
The vinyl mall: Kızlarağası Hanı
The Kızlarağası Hanı is a restored historic bazaar surrounded by the jumble of Kemeraltı. The ground level of the bazaar houses mostly jewelry and souvenir shops, in addition to a picturesque central courtyard where they serve coffee.
But there is an easily-missed second level at the Han, which, among other vintage shops, is home to a gaggle of record stores. It’s a great place to bounce from shop to shop. There are a few dedicated record shops and some that carry records along with vintage stereos and other gadgets. The new or like-new records are a little pricey up here: I saw several new reprints of classic-rock albums for 200 TL. But there are plenty of bargain bins at the various stores.
A couple standouts up here are Matara Ilgi Evi (space no. 162) and Gramofon Evi (no. 129). Matara has an insane selection of vintage Turkish singles. One entire wall is covered in 45s. It’s a DJ’s dreamland. Gramofon has very valuable Turkish collectibles—I saw records for 1000 TL here—but also a long table of bargain bins outside, where you can snatch up obscure disco albums for 20 TL.
Address: 902. Sk. No 37, the stairs to the second level are near the entrance on 871. Sk.
The bargain champ: 45lik Plak Evi
This store a few corners from Kızlarağası Hanı may be small, tiny even, but it has a wonderful selection of Turkish and (mostly) European albums. And it has the best and biggest bargain bins in town. The bins are arranged by price, ranging from 5-30 TL. There are some gems to be had for little money. And by gems, I mean Eurotrash pop from 1974. Get it before it’s retro-chic!
Bonus: 45lik shares a courtyard with one of the best lunch places in Izmir, Bizim Mutfak.
Address: 914 Sok. No: 12, Mirkelam Han Hisarönü Phone: 0505 317 30 01
Where to get your hardware (and records, too)
While several of the places upstairs at the old bazaar sell record-players and stereos, three shops away from the Han offer better deals. They’re also worthy stops for record-shopping.
Ceyhun Plak in Konak, close to the clock tower, has an eclectic mish-mash of international records—the owner played me some German hits from the 70s I’d completely forgotten about and Western soundtracks grace the walls. And there are piles of old Turkish records.
But Ceyhun also has the best prices on record-players in town, and can service and repair vintage turntables and stereos. They sell needles, too. I saw a German-made turntable from the 80s that was going for 400 TL. Something like that would be twice as much at the historic bazaar.
The best all-around inventory of turntables and stereos I’ve seen in Izmir was at Pearly Sound in Karşıyaka. The offerings ranged from vintage German-made gear to modern budget players. There were a couple hundred records lined up underneath the shelves holding receivers and tape machines. Prices for the albums ranged from 30-90TL; most of it was by international artists.
At the high end of the gear spectrum is Audiophile in Alsancak. It’s barely a record store. Only about 30 albums grace its window, with a few more cases in the back of the store. There were some nice jazz records. And oddly enough, considering the likely clientele here, one of the cases in the back was a bargain bin with cheap pop/rock records.
This is the place to go if you’re looking for a really nice turntable and have a few grand (TL) to spend on one.
Ceyhun Plak: Anafartalar Caddesi No 35 P-03, Konak
Phone: 0505 610 73 57
Pearly Sound: 1691. Sk. No 2-C, Karşıyaka
Phone: 0531 838 09 69
Audiophile: 1391. Sk. No 6, Alsancak
Phone: 0232 464 92 79
Did we miss any other record shops worth checking out? Let us know in the comments!
All images courtesy of Jacques Von Lunen.
